Systems which automatically distribute customer contacts or calls (generically “ACD”) are often employed in telemarketing environments in which agents stationed at agent telephone sets answer many different types of telephone calls and other types of customer contacts (VoIP, emails, facsimile, chat room dialog, instant messaging, other Internet contacts, etc.) from customers during a work day. As referred to herein, an ACD may be referred to as an automatic call distributor or an automatic contact distributor because the ACD handles a variety of communication media. In other words, the ACD handles many forms of communication, not just telephone calls in which a potential customer speaks with an agent. In these known systems, the agent may receive certain information about the type of customer call (i.e. contact) on a visual display at the agent set when a call or contact is distributed to the agent. An ACD is any such system which performs these functions and, for example, may employ a wide variety of architectures including integrated centralized systems, distributed systems, systems using one or more personal computers or servers, etc.
In some embodiments, ACD's may be used to support a number of different vendors in their telemarketing effort, and in such marketing environments, the agent is typically in communication with the customer or potential customer with respect to or on behalf of a particular vendor. The next contact that the agent processes may be on behalf of the same vendor or on behalf of a different vendor. In another embodiment, alternative ACD's may be used exclusively by or on behalf of a single vendor such that all of the contacts processed by the agent involve one particular vendor.
Often, a customer call is distributed to an agent that involves interactive voice dialog. This means a normal two-way verbal exchange. In this situation, the agent's attention should be focused on the customer dialog, and external distractions, such as extraneous noise and sounds should be minimized. When agents are idle, an ACD, because it handles two-way audio communication, may route music to the agent via an ACD's voice channel. This may increase agent productivity and may have a calming effect on the agent. This involves routing the music source over the same pathway or voice channel that is normally established between the agent and the caller, except that when the agent is idle, there is no caller. Of course, when the agent becomes busy, that is, is in verbal communication with a caller, the ACD terminates the music to the agent.
An ACD, however, may also distribute a non-voice dialog contact or call to the agent. This does not involve direct two-way speech between the agent and the customer or caller. Non-voice dialog communication may be, for example, emails, facsimile, chat room dialog, instant messaging, Internet, etc. and the like. Handling of the non-voice dialog contact may require a specialized device or subcomponent of the ACD. In this situation, the agent will typically view text on a display screen that the caller typed in or transmitted. In response, the agent may provide information to the contact or request information from the caller, via the keyboard or other input device. Essentially, the dialog between the agent and the caller occurs on a computer display screen. Further, the agent may handle multiple calls. For example, the agent may handle four to five simultaneous non-voice dialog communications, which are typically viewed as four or five separate dialog windows on the display screen, which may be tiled or layered.
In the above-described situation, the agent does not speak with the contact, but rather, the agent types his or her responses using the keyboard or other input device. This tends to be a solitary task in which the agent is prone to becoming bored. This may have a negative impact on the agent's productivity and efficiency. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide the agent with music while handling the non-verbal dialog communication. Known ACD's, however, only provide music to an agent who is idle, that is, when the agent is not engaged in any communication with a customer or potential customer. The ACD provides such music via the voice channel from the ACD to the agent. No provision currently exists to route music to the agent during non-voice dialog communication, such as when the agent is handling a non-voice dialog communication, because during non-voice dialog communication, no voice channel is active or connected between the ACD and the agent.